Entropy
by WingedWolf121
Summary: Entropy begins the day Mason dies in Alex's arms. Alex's descent into darkness, from the perspective of her enemy and her ally, Justin. Jalex elements. Warning: incest, character death, blood
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I don't even remember where this idea came from. But this fic is going to be creepy and weird and bloody and contain incest. The fainthearted should turn back now. **

**Disclaimer: I think that the fact I even wrote this proves I don't own WoWP.**

The day entropy begins is an ordinary day. Your parents are in the shop, making subs and dealing with rude customers. Max is off doing whatever Max does, which today is most likely goofing off in a park somewhere. You walk from the shop, bickering with Alex. Mason is on Alex's arm (there's never any doubt, with the boys Alex dates, who is really in control) and listening with amusement.

So it's totally unexpected when Mason keels over, his eyes wide with shock, and a hole in his chest. Alex catches him and lowers him to the ground, presses her hands over his heart trying to staunch the stream of blood.

You stand frozen as your little sister cradles the boy she loves in her arms, and see the warlock. He's not at all ordinary looking, with scars criss crossing his face and a silver wand pointed at Mason, red eyes full of cruel laughter.

Mason's blood soaks Alex's jeans and the pretty white blouse she was wearing, and he tries to speak. All that comes from his mouth is a gurgling sound, and blood burbles from his lips.

You still cannot move. Alex is good in crisis situations, Alex is creative and smarter than anyone gives her credit for, but she isn't flinging herself into action with an improvised spell, she's holding her dying boyfriend, and you're the one who should be doing something but you can't, you are comfortable with the books and the textbook spells that _work_ not Alex's crazy interpretations and no teacher has told you what to do in this situation.

Everything is moving in slow motion, and it echoes in your ears. The bang of the door as a crowd rushes to the scene (for once it would be better if there were no customers), the cry of a policeman on the corner who has been useless, Alex's shuddering pleas for Mason to hold on, Mason's wet breathing, and then the absence of any breath at all from Mason.

The warlock meets your eyes and smiles. He disappears then, in a whirl of smoke, and Mason is dead and Alex's hands are coated with blood because she was probably trying to do some sort of healing magic except that neither of you have been taught healing magic, and you failed to do anything.

Normal time returns. You fall to your knees next to Alex and put an arm around her shoulders. She pushes you away and two bright red handprints will forever mark this shirt, you can't wash off deathblood.

"What happened?"

"Call 911!"

"Oh my god he's dead!"

The crowd pulses and grows around you. You, squatting next to Alex unsure if touching her is okay, do nothing. Alex wraps her arms around Mason and clings to his lifeless body as if she can bring him back with the force of her love, but you both know that the dead cannot be revived. That's a fundamental law, and maybe if someone had acted while he was dying there would be hope, but the only one who moved was Alex and she was never trained for this.

"Oh my god, Mason!" Dad pushes through the crowd and sees it, his bloodstained daughter and his shellshocked son. There's noise, an ambulance, and the policeman is trying to get Alex to release the body.

_Don't. _You want to tell him. _Alex won't let go._

You're right. She snarls at the policeman, and he stumbles back gripping his heart. Your mother is here now and she stumbles up to you, her face so bewildered, but you are the child who isn't behaving like a wild animal so you are the one she goes to.

"Justin, what happened?" She flings herself down next to you and embraces you, hands fluttering over the handprints on your shirt. Dad is warily trying to approach Alex.

"A warlock." Dad changes his tactics and goes to you. "He came out of nowhere and suddenly Mason was spurting blood…Dad, you need to call the wizard council, tell them that a dark wizard is running around…"

Your mouth is on autopilot. The rest of you is focused on Alex, as she tenderly closes Mason's eyes. The EMTs have showed up, and she steps away from the body. When one asks if she was hurt, she says "no" in a voice that is steady, but hollow.

"Alex?" You get to your feet. Your parents move back, you are better at dealing with Alex and her moods. You've never really had to deal with grief before. "Alex?"

"The policeman was right there. He was useless. No one in the street even reacted, no one came to help. There's supposed to be a doctor in the sub shop who appears just in time to save him, and then gets an article on the internet and free food here for the rest of his life." Alex says. She steps back, away from you. "Get Mason away from them. They can't get samples of his blood or examine him properly."

You recognize truth and hurry to cover up, because you always cover up when Alex does something impulsive and almost exposes magic, and you'll cover up the secret of the magical world now too.

Mom tries to put an arm around Alex's shoulders. Alex shakes her off.

You place a call to emergency wizards, and then you are all somehow sitting in the sub shop with Mason's body on a table and the phone ringing with questions from reporters about the boy who was "shot", and Alex hasn't bothered to change out of her bloody clothes.

"Guys, what _happened_ there are a bunch of people outside and-" Max, coming in the door with Harper in tow, stops dead. His eyes widen as he sees Mason's body and the blood on you and Alex. Harper screams.

It ends up with you at a table, an arm around your mother who for some reason you are consoling, Max slumped over with a dazed look on his face as if he cannot believe that this has happened, and Alex in her own bubble of space. Harper sits aside, eyes wide and frightened. Dad waits for the emergency wizards.

The second they learn it was a death by magic-the protocol for that is so outdated, not even you know it because no one is killed by magic, no one would do that-you are all whisked away to the offices of the high wizards.

Mason's body is taken by a grey haired wizard, who clearly doesn't care a whit that this was Mason, Alex's boyfriend, only that this is a boy killed by a dark wizard. Alex doesn't object, because maybe she's smarter than to challenge anyone in this place. You don't even know where this is. It's dark and lit by torches and not in any plans or records.

All of you are brought there except Harper. She isn't a part of this world. Neither is Mom, really, but Mom was sort of a witness. Besides, Max clings to her like he did as a child and she must be a helpful bargaining tool.

The wizard you are brought to doesn't greet you. You can feel weird power in this place, this tower (you think it's a tower, though there are no windows), and the wizard doesn't volunteer information. He has cold blue eyes and power radiates from him like it does from all the super powerful wizards you've met.

These aren't monster hunters. "Identify."

He slides a file across a table to you. You, as the only one who seems to be coherent, take it and flip through. His picture isn't in it. You shake your head.

"He isn't in here." You describe the warlock as best you can. "He had scars all over his face, taller than I am. And red eyes." Something ugly flashes over the wizard's face.

"Hengist." A letter appears in the air next to him, and he reads the yellowed parchment quickly. "Killed the werewolf with a spell that ripped apart the arteries around his heart, no traceable magic left, healing magic was applied but failed."

So Alex was trying to save him. Of course she was trying to do something.

"Who is Hengist?" Max asks. The wizard looks at you all, bloody Alex and terrified Mom and pale Dad, and you who aren't sure what to do, and tells you. He makes it sound like this is more than you have a right to know, and he's doing you an incredible kindness by giving you the information.

"A dark wizard. He's one of the Entropy Order, a group dedicated to destroying all creation and throwing the world into chaos."

"I've never heard of this Order!" You say, somewhat indignantly. It's ridiculous, Alex's boyfriend _died_ and you're annoyed that there was a gap in your learning, but you are who you are.

"It's shrouded in secrecy, and the warlocks within have more power than you can possibly imagine." The wizard responds. He gazes at you pitilessly. "The wizards who fight them are the only ones who truly understand."

The master wizards, you think. The ones who can make the earth shake, who are the ones which manage the actual competition from on high, so high that you don't even know they're there, the ones who can come and take your magic away. Or maybe not, maybe there are others, you don't _know_.

"So where were you?" Alex hasn't spoken since she told the EMTs she was unharmed. Now she stares at this wizard, and her eyes are very, very, strange. "If you're fighting it, where were you when he was dying?"

"Hengist is one of the most powerful people in the world." Snaps the wizard. "We lost track of him after he arranged World War 1."

"So you did nothing." Alex is looking at him, and the wizard is clearly not liking her eyes. It must not be common for a warlock so powerful and so secret that you don't even know who he is to be so scrutinized. "For all your supposed power, you did nothing."

"We cannot keep track of everything." The wizard puts the file into a drawer. You watch it go mournfully, because what knowledge you could have gained reading it! "The werewolf's death has given us a starting point. You should be grateful he died for such a cause."

Alex's eyes simmer, and she says nothing.

* * *

><p>You hesitantly knock on Alex's door. Harper is at Zeke's house, she doesn't want to stay here and you don't blame her. Zeke is blissfully unaware that anything happened, probably still chattering on about nothing as Harper cuddles up to him. Max has retreated to his room, Mom is in the kitchen, Dad is fielding reporters. You've brought food to your sister.<p>

"Alex? Can I come in?" There is no answer. You push the door open and stop short.

Her room has been destroyed. Artwork broken, paints smashed everywhere, wallpaper ripped off the walls and scratches scored into the plaster beneath. Alex's bed is overturned, the slats broken, the mattress torn apart and resting in bits all over the scorched remains of her carpeting.

For a second you wonder how your tiny little sister did this. Then you look for Alex.

She sits in a corner. Alex has changed from her bloodstained clothing to a tank top and shorts. Her pale legs, so pretty and perfect and you've always compared the legs of your girlfriends to those legs, are folded under her. Her arms are folded so her breasts are high and it's hard not to look at them. Her hair is unkempt and the tips are still rusty red.

"I brought food." You say weakly. Alex shrugs. "Alex…this isn't um, healthy."

"Why, you don't say?" She gets to her feet a one smooth motion and strides across the room to take the plate from you. Her dark eyes flash at you. "I'm healthier than some in this family."

"Um?" She slams the door in your face. You stare at it, and hear what sounds like a plate smashing. You back away and go to the kitchen where Mom is baking and trying desperately not to think of her daughter. This is just a stage of grief. Even if that room and Alex in the corner scared you.

* * *

><p>You don't see much of Alex for about a week. Dad tries to talk to her, and finds that she locked the door to her room. It's a very impressive spell. Mom doesn't even attempt to talk, but she makes all of Alex's favorite foods for you to leave outside the door. Harper doesn't talk to her either. Max mourns Mason in his own way, and he'll speak to the family rather than locking himself away.<p>

Come two weeks, and you're worried. Alex needs to be back in school, where you and Max have both been asked about your poor sister and sympathies been expressed. No one asks you about what it was like being at the shooting, so you can go to Alex and assure her privacy.

To your surprise, when you knock on the door, it opens. Alex is wearing skinny jeans and leather boots, with a tight shirt that makes it hard not to look at her in a not brotherly manner, and her backpack is slung over her shoulder.

"Ready for school? Let's go." She trots downstairs, taking a piece of toast of Dad's plate, and you shrug in response to the confused looks from the family. You all walk to school the normal way, no protests from Alex about why you can't just zap there.

Maybe this has taught her that magic won't fix everything, and she can't rely on it that way. You go to school and Alex walks in a bubble of self possession, ignoring all other students. Harper is outside that bubble, always walking a foot away with rabbit like fear in her eyes.

You check up on her. She's your little sister, you have to. You look into her classrooms and see her writing down notes, black pen speeding over the page and leaving behind black squiggles. You keep checking every day, but she keeps up her work, and you relax a little bit.

A few weeks pass. Alex is still quiet, and she has stopped doing impulsive, entertaining (though you'd never admit it) fun, things. She replies to Dad's questions about school with answers that are all fact and none of the mockery you're used to. You cover for her at the shop constantly, but she's not hanging out with Harper.

Harper, you know, is still laughing with Zeke and liking life as long as she isn't around Alex. That's most of the time, now. Max has grieved Mason, and should be recovering, but he can't get up to his old activities because Alex isn't there to encourage him like she should.

You never thought you be sad when Alex stopped helping cause chaos. Alex spends her time in her room, and you don't know how to approach her and ask if she's okay. She isn't eating much, but she never has, and she's still healthy. Still beautiful.

When you relay concerns to Dad, he just shrugs. "You know how Alex felt about Mason. We can't exactly lecture her for being studious."

Yes, you knew how passionate Alex was with Mason. This little sister who doesn't constantly belittle you isn't like that, but you cannot imagine Alex without passion. That night, during dinner, you study her.

Her hair has grown longer, and curled somewhat. She eats about half of what's on the plate. Then she looks up, directly at you, and her mouth curves up in a mocking smile.

"You know Justin, you've got something on your face." You automatically raise a hand to wipe it away, and end up with a smear of spaghetti sauce on your cheek and Max laughing at you. Alex watches from hooded lids, and then speaks to the entire table. "I want to hold a vigil for Mason."

Your father freezes with fork halfway to his mouth, your mother blinks, Max frowns, Harper squeaks. You look at Alex and wonder what she's up to.

"Honey, that's a wonderful idea!" Mom says. You know she wants Alex to put Mason to rest. Alex nods.

"I want to do it alone, on the terrace." You squint at her, in suspicion. "Please, just because he was Mason and I don't want anyone to see me…" She raises a hand to wipe her eyes. Your stomach curdles as you think that Alex just wants a private goodbye to her boyfriend, and here you are suspecting her of whatever the hell you suspect her of.

"Oh, honey, of course." Dad gets up and hugs her. Alex melts into his embrace, and soon both parents are embracing her. You and Max look at each other. Max shrugs and gets up to pat her shoulder over Mom's back, and Harper folds her in on another side. You rise with reluctance and involve yourself in the family hug.

Alex has her vigil on Saturday night. Harper vacates the premises. Mom and Dad nod understandingly, and say that they'll hang out in the sub shop. Max declares that he's going to marathon Star Wars, to the glare of your mother. Alex isn't offended at all, if anything she's pleased that Max won't be making an enormous deal out of her private goodbye. You have a term paper to write, and go over to Zeke's.

You still poke your head out onto the terrace to make sure Alex will be okay. She's setting up candles, and tells you with pain in her voice to please go. You scram because Alex has those eyes and that soft voice and you can never say no to her, never go against her wishes.

At Zeke's, he yammers and you open your laptop and write about the French-Indian wars. You're still worried about Alex, but Zeke is about as far from Alex and her grief as you can get. Zeke whoops, and grabs you.

"Hey, Justin! A UFO!" You scurry over to the window in excitement. It's not that, just a bit of what looks like the northern lights. You tip your head and it's gone, but it was there. Huh. You switch from early colonies of America to an extra credit on weather patterns.

The next morning, Alex is looking clean and accepting, and insults you about how you spend your Saturday nights when you walk into the kitchen. She's chowing down on French Toast, and Mom looks overjoyed at how much Alex is devouring.

"Did you see those lights last night?" Dad says from where he sits on the couch in his bathrobe. It's insensitive, but he doesn't realize it until Alex looks over at him. "I-I mean ah…"

"Yes, I did." Alex gulps down her orange juice and refills her glass. "I think it was nice. Sort of like nature was remembering Mason and who he was too."

"That's wonderful honey." Mom plops a pancake on Alex's plate for her to devour. Max hasn't come downstairs, the marathon probably isn't over yet. "I think that too."

"They were beautiful." Alex says quietly. She isn't rising up at the overly cheerful voice of her mother with a deadpan comment or mood killing quip. Alex looks tired actually, and stiff. You think that she must have stayed up all night.

"Yes, the jet stream dipped and brought in an extreme cold front, which coupled with cumulous clouds…" You trail off when she shoots you an old look, a look that says "why are you so stupid?". "What?"

"You really need a girlfriend. One day Harper is going to find somewhere fun and require her boyfriend on Saturday nights." You glare at her, Alex smirks and returns to her food. "How is Zeke anyway, he hasn't been around in ages."

"He thought the aurora borealis was a ufo." Alex laughs. You think that this has been so good for her, this night of being outside and remembering Mason, and it isn't until later that you wonder why her candles were the wrong color.

* * *

><p>Everyone thinks Alex is getting better. She walks with confidence, you don't need to check in on her classes, Harper is talking to her again. If Alex is more removed, if she wildly casts magic with a colder glint in her eyes, you don't really notice.<p>

It's Alex. Wonderful Alex, who you do so desperately need, because if you aren't covering up for Alex you've discovered that you life really isn't much. You drink in her new laughter, and like a dying man who comes across an oasis, whether it's all a mirage doesn't occur to you.

Of course, eventually you get a letter that says Alex isn't attending school.

"How can you not be going to school! Harper sees you every day!" Dad yells, brandishing the letter. Alex sits calmly on the couch, and tilts her head up to glare at him.

"I do go to school. Harper just doesn't have any classes with me." True. At this point, Harper is in her smart classes and Alex is in art and remedial, but you see them off to homeroom each day! You step forward and flick your wand at her.

She looks at you derisively, but the truth spell is there. Alex stands, crosses her arms, and says "I do go to school. Just not the one you're thinking of."

A halo lights over her head. You stare incredulously.

"Wizard classes don't count!" Mom snaps. The light remains true. She looks confused. So do you, and so does Max, who is sitting on the sidelines watching with interest. Harper is with your parents and you, telling Alex that she needs to go to school.

One thing you're sure of, and that's that Alex cannot get around the truth spell. It's tried and true, and not even Alex and her inventiveness can cancel it. "But Alex…"

"If she flunks high school she could still become a magic cop." Max offers. Alex whirls and turns her dark eyes on him in anger.

"No." The word is thrown at him with steel behind it, and makes Max stumble back. "The wizards, the enforcers of those useless laws, they're nothing. They do _nothing_."

You sort of agree with her. They after all, were not there when it counted, but Alex speaks with hatred in her voice. You've never heard hatred from her before, and it sounds natural on her tongue.

"Yes Alex." Max says quickly. He raises in hands in supplication, always ready to give into her stronger will. Alex nods at him and turns her burning gaze to you, to Dad, to Mom.

"You can't talk about them like that, Alex." Dad says firmly. He steps forward. "The wizard law enforcers are a great team, and without them, the world wouldn't be in such good shape."

"Good shape?" Alex tosses her head, and laughs. "So, this is what you call a good shape? Do you even _know_ half of what the high wizards do?"

The answer, of course, is no. You tried to probe further into the wizard database than the libraries, and in response the wiznet crashed. Of course, the powerful wizards brought it back online, to the relief of the community, and you got the warning.

You wonder if Alex got around that barrier somehow. Looking at her now, in her black jeans that cup her legs and make even a brother think the wrong thing, her tight shirt and her long hair, you realize that she doesn't look recovered from Mason at all. She looks like your little sister alright, but a little sister turned dangerous.

"Alex!" Mom says sharply. "It's not your place to question your father!"

"Then he should stop being _blind_." Alex says icily.

"Where have you been going to school then?" You ask, sharply. She turns her head to you. You might be a bit jealous that Alex, who needs their old high school, has found alternate means where you, who are leaps above, are constrained to it. "Got Uncle Kelso to tutor you in magic?"

"Of course not." Alex shrugs. "He couldn't teach me anything."

"He's a wizard!" A poor example of one, but a wizard nonetheless. Uncle Kelso gets your respect for that, and since when does Alex talk about her favorite uncle with that look of condescension in her eyes? Alex loves Uncle Kelso.

"Yes, I'd noticed _that_. And they call you a genius." Alex turns. "I'm done listening to you."

"Oh no you don't!" Mom splutters. She gestures wildly. "Go to your room!"

Alex disappears down the steps to her abode, and leaves the family in silence.

* * *

><p>You're the one who goes after her. Alex might be in danger, might be in trouble, and you're one who always saves her, it's written in your DNA that you go after her and lecture her, and maybe make sure she's okay.<p>

The door to her room isn't locked. Alex is sitting on her bed, pouring over the forbidden book of spells. But she doesn't have the family wand-you're sure, because you might have sorta set up a spell to watch it because you're paranoid.

So how the hell did she end up with the forbidden book? There was a spell on that too.

Alex looks up at you and nods, then goes back to the book.

"How did you get that?"

"I walked in and took it." Not helpful. You step into the room and shut the door behind you. She flicks her eyes up at you from under thick lashes, and its hard to think straight. "Was there something you wanted?"

"You said you were still going to school."

"Of sorts." Alex traces a finger down a column of writing. "Did you really believe those were the Northern Lights? In _New York?_"

Yes, you did. You might be the genius, but you can be an utter fool sometimes. Alex must have done something, something inventive and wizardly and daring and how did you not figure out that Alex was plotting?

"What are you doing?" Because you really have no idea. The corners of Alex's mouth turn up.

"Don't you know?" You feel like an idiot. Alex is the only person in the world who can make you feel that way, after all your studying.

"It's about Mason. Alex, he's _dead_. You know you can't get him back." Alex sits up and puts down the book, her eyes dark and dangerous. You step back, even though it's ridiculous for the to be afraid of Alex.

"Do you think I don't know that?" She snarls and moved across the bed in a fluid motion. You stumble back again as Alex lunges toward you. "Do you think I don't _know?_ No one did anything to stop it! Not one of those so called powerful high wizards, not mortal authorities, no one, and no one moved to help!"

That no one includes you.

"You…" You just don't know what to say to her. Alex has always been high spirited and determined and willing to go to any lengths to get what she wants, and you've always been powerless to do any more than minimize collateral damage. Your mouth is dry.

Alex turns from you and picks up the book. "Get out of my room."

"Give me the book." Alex cocks her head and looks at you. A slow smile works its way over her face.

"No." There's sort of not much you can say to that. "I'll be done with it soon."

That's disturbing. The forbidden book is full of spells and a couple potions and possibly a curse or two. No one should be able to process it in the months it's been since Mason's death. It's easy to forget in normal life, that Alex is brilliant. It's scary to think that she's been seriously applying herself.

You leave the room.

* * *

><p>Alex doesn't leave her room for two days. The food you leave outside remains untouched. Finally, you and Dad force your way in. Alex didn't lock it with that spell that she probably got from the book, she just put a chair under the knob.<p>

And Alex isn't there. The forbidden book of spells lies on her bedspread. Every page has been blackened, scribbled over with tiny writing that you barely recognize as Alex's.

Next to it is her wand.

**A/N: I was in a mood, alright? Regular updates are promised, reviews are loved, and people who flame will be laughed at. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks to reviewers!**

Alex has vanished without a trace. Mom calls the mortal authorities, and though the amber alert is put out, nothing comes from it. Dad calls emergency wizards. You and Max look at each other as they ask questions, and understand.

Max doesn't think they can find her. You think he's right.

For sure, you've got your total faith in the _authorities_. But Alex is Alex, and she's a genius when she wants to be. You however, are also very smart, and you want to find her a hell of a lot more than the emergency wizards.

You try to find clues. You did always want to be a private eye, but you can't make anything of the riddle Alex left for you.

She left her wand.

Why leave the wand? It's one of the most integral parts of wizardry, the way to greater power, something she always has on her. Wizards _need_ wands.

When Dad calls the wizard authorities, and they say she's in her room, you understand. They can track wizards with their wands, and somehow Alex knew it. You quietly ask Dad if she needs a wand, and his reply is dubious at best.

"Well, she can always do hand magic, but wands are just foci for magic, so in theory she could use something else…but it would be hard to create, and it would take power." Dad doesn't say whether Alex could, in practice, do anything. The wizard authorities don't think she could.

You aren't so sure. So you investigate the only lead she left. The Forbidden Book of Spells. You can't read it now, and the cramped black handwriting is certainly Alex's, but it's illegible. It's over every page, every margin, and it's ominous to you. Dad says you can get another book from wiztech, but it's not the spells in the book that concern you.

After all, they may be powerful, but those spells aren't scary. Not scary like the black scribbles covering them. You turn to Alex's room, looking for something else, anything else, that will give you even the slightest hint to her whereabouts.

You find nothing. Under the bed are her notebooks, now reduced to heaps of charcoal, only recognizable by the spiral wires buried in the piles. Alex left everything behind. Her clothing hangs in the closet. Some of it is torn or burned, but she left with nothing. Her shoes are heaped together there as well, and her photos, and her makeup, and all the other things that Alex always brought with her when she went on a trip.

It feels dirty rummaging in her underwear drawer, but that doesn't stop you. All you get is an uncomfortable stir in your pants as you fumble though silk and lace. Alex did have a journal in there, one of her old ones where pictures moved and she could dive in at will, but pages are blotched with red ink and all the magic is stripped from it.

Each time you examine her room, you are more disturbed. There are nail marks in the wood by her bed. A dent in her headboard. Random acts of destruction among her possessions. But nothing at all that indicates where she's gone, or why.

Your obsession with what has become of Alex goes unremarked. Dad is eating more, and drinking more. Harper's craftwork is more frantic, more compulsive, and her creations litter the apartment. Mom worries over Max and you, demanding that one of her children always be in her sight. Usually that's Max.

It's rather surprising, but Max is the one coping best. He plugs in headphones and wheedles away the hours with a videogame, constantly under Mom's eye. Dinner is normally silent.

There's school, but neither of you still attends. Max _should,_ but Mom can't let him out of her sight, and after a few letters, the school stops inquiring. The news that Alex disappeared got out after you interrogated every single person who'd ever talked to Alex. It was a long shot, but you were desperate, and nothing comes of it anyway. Not a single person knew anything but that Alex stopped speaking to people.

All in all, the Russos become an isolated family group. The sub station isn't doing so well, not now that Mom's eyes dart around for a child as she takes orders, and Dad's hands shake when he makes sandwiches. Max is a help, but he walks around with a ducked head and shoulders hunched. You try to be normal, but it's hard when you can almost see Alex sitting in her favorite booth slacking off, and hear her laugh rippling from the kitchens.

Her picture is in the window, with a plea for people to call if they know anything. No one calls. You want to take it down. She won't be found, not unless she wants to be. Mom replaces it with a fresh flier whenever it looks worn.

Life does not go on. You still spend hours pawing through Alex's room looking. You're not sure what you hope to find, but there is _nothing._ Dad doesn't stop drinking and eating. Mom doesn't let up on her obsessive need to know where you and Max are. Max tolerates it, and you're amazed at how well he takes it. Harper flees the apartment to Zeke's arms often.

He may be the nicest guy ever, but Zeke is getting tired of it. He tells you that much once when Harper is in the bathroom, and asks if you can talk to her. You tell him that her _best friend_ is gone and does he think that she's supposed to be okay after that? Zeke shuts up.

* * *

><p>Change comes in the form of Harper flinging herself into your arms, sobbing. You awkwardly pat her back.<p>

"There, there." Harper draws back, her eyes puffy and her cheeks pale. "What happened?"

Did they find Alex, dead?

"I-it's Zeke. He disappeared!" She wails. Mom hurried over and takes the hysterical girl into her arms. You think bitterly that she wasn't able to console her own daughter when _her_ boyfriend was snatched away, what right does Harper have to her comfort? "His mom called me and said he hasn't been seen since he drove off to the comic store and that was a day ago!"

Max watches silently on the sidelines. You look at Dad for permission. He nods.

"No! My son is not going out there when one boy is gone, you stay right here!" Mom orders, sounding half hysterical herself. Harper looks at you with teary eyes and her blotchy face, and she wants you to help.

"Mom, I've got magic, don't worry about me." You say soothingly. "I'll stay invisible the whole time."

"No…" Mom groans. "Not another of my children…" Dad steps over and begins shushing her. You escape out the door and zap yourself into a road by central park, where you know Zeke often drove because it passes an excellent nachos stand.

Night has fallen. You light up your wand and begin walking. Zeke's car is pulled over on the line of grass by the road, and it's empty. You pace around it, fighting back the shivers.

No sign of struggle. Zeke just pulled over. Maybe he saw something on the side of the road and pulled over to look at it, then wandered away because he's Zeke and it's ridiculous how absent minded he is, and maybe he's passed out from eating too many nachos a little up the road.

It's a comforting theory, but you see the latest edition of "Captain JimBob Sherwood" on the seat. Funny, you'd forgotten all about the Captain. Little things like that have become insignificant. But Jimbob is very significant for Zeke, and he would never just forget about the Captain. He'd go straight home, settle down in his room for two hours to read the latest issue and spend the night in a chat room discussing the nuances.

It was damp yesterday, and you find footprints in the dirt. Zeke got out of the car and walked up to the ground beneath a pine tree. His feet made clear indentations in the ground, deeper ones just by the trunk as he stood for a few minutes.

You desperately wish that maybe Zeke just needed to piss and left the car for that, but the prints continue deeper into the forest. You follow, searching for other footprints. There are none.

Zeke walked to a clearing. It's nothing special, just a spot where the pines clear and the sky is bright overhead. There would have been just enough moon to see by. Here Zeke stopped, and there is a bigger indentation that looks about the right size for a body.

You think that if he screamed from this clearing, no one would hear it.

So Zeke was driving with the latest edition of his favorite comic book, when he pulled over to the side of the woods, at night, and walked into the forest, collapsed, and vanished.

If Zeke saw Alex by the side of the road, he would stop without a second thought. He would get right out of the car, and if she wanted him to do something, Zeke would obey. He would never even hesitate.

You shiver in that clearing, not liking the way the air feels.

It's rank. You can't explain how, but your wand light sputters and needs extra power to perform the most basic of magics. You provide the power, but the illumination of the clearing shows nothing.

There are no other footprints. If Alex was here, there would have been other footprints. There is nothing, nothing at all, and that is so unnerving that you hurry from the clearing without looking over your shoulder. The trees shake slightly, as if something is laughing.

When you pop back into the apartment, Harper is eating icecream with Mom, Dad is sipping beer in front of a hockey game, and Max is absorbed in his ps3. Everyone looks at you.

You shake your head. You say you found footprints and his car, but nothing else. Harper breaks into fresh tears, Mom glares at you as if it's your fault, and Max battles the aliens with new ferocity. Dad looks at you like he shares your thoughts. You shrug.

If this was Alex, _if_ your little sister somehow found a way to stop leaving footprints, you have no proof. Just a vague feeling, and you can't rely on that, you can't find her with that, and you may feel awful for thinking only of Alex and not Zeke and the fact that he's gone, but you can't help it.

* * *

><p>You awaken in the night to someone shaking you.<p>

"Justin?" You sit bolt upright. In the darkness you only see a dark shape by the bed.

"Alex?" The voice is unmistakable.

"Yes. Justin, I need your help." It's the same request that's always been put to you. It's familiar, it's Alex, it's always been your place to hear it. Your reaction is automatic, and you couldn't possibly say anything else.

"Of course I'll help you." Alex gets to her feet. A ball of purple and blue forms in her hand and raises into the air, casting light over both of you. It's good light, exemplary for hand magic, especially hand magic without words, and you aren't quite sure you could do it.

But you stop focusing on the ball when it illuminates Alex. Her eyes survey you, dark and hot, and you swallow. Alex is barely clothed. A black bra cups her breasts, more lace than actual fabric. A similarly insubstantial bit of lingerie is between her legs, and you aren't whether it's the swell of her breasts or the dark hair curling over her underwear that sets your heart to pounding.

"Good." Alex murmurs. You swallow and shuffle away, accidentally kicking off the blankets and revealing the state you're in. Your back hits the headboard, and you can do nothing but stare at the goddess before you.

Alex moves to you with the sinuous grace of a predator. Her lips curl up as your cock swells, and she mounts the bed without a bit of hesitation. You want to say something, some whisper of protest, but then Alex _straddles_ you and the feel of her thighs touching you is more than you can take.

You grab for her. Alex laughs, a dark little flicker of sound that sends electric tingles through your lower body, and lets your fumbling hands rip off the bra, lets you grasp her waist and pull her closer, nuzzle into her chest and run your hands over in a way that in daylight would horrify you, but you're half convinced this is a dream and can't stop yourself anyway when she arches against you and removes your pants with an ease that should make you wonder just what she's been up to.

But coherent thought it out of the picture. She thrusts with her hips again and there's isn't anything in your head but the sensation of her around you and her rolling her hips and your moans, and her little pants that drive you to new heights of arousal every time they reach your ears.

It doesn't last. You're a virgin, you're a teenager, of course it isn't long. Alex lets you rest against her shoulder for only a few seconds. Then she pushes you off her and steps away from your naked body. You blink at her.

Now you notice she has scars. A line just under her navel, like someone tried to disembowel her and failed. What looks like a claw mark on her thigh. The fading mark of a burn under one breast.

Her hair is different. There are now two streaks of pure white in it, and her gaze, when she turns it on you, is triumphant. You couldn't move if you wanted to. Alex turns her back on you, and you see that there are harsh lines on her back.

It looks like she's been whipped, or flogged. You want to move but can't, and Alex disappears with the little globe of light. She leaves you in a dark room to contemplate the fact that you just lost your virginity to your little sister.

You end up falling asleep sitting up against the headboard, and when the morning light wakes you, you think it must have been a dream.

But it wasn't. Your pants lie in a heap on the floor, your shirt has been ripped, and it's pretty obvious that you ain't a virgin no more. You stare around, at the spot where Alex crouched and got your consent, at the pants she tossed on the floor, at where Alex left again.

She'd said she needed your help. Aside from fucking your _sister_, what did you do last night?

Catch an STD? For all you know, you did. You rather doubt Alex is a virgin, and safe sex was the farthest thing from your name. Impregnate Alex? Maybe, but what are the chances? She could be on the pill. She could have a spell to prevent it, you've read about them. Never had opportunity to use them, or try one, but you know they exist.

You had Alex in the room with you, and you let her leave.

That's what it comes down to. You engaged in incest, underage sex, and let what was probably the only chance you're ever going to get to question Alex slip through your fingers because you were too horny to think straight.

_?_

They can't. No one can find out about this. It's against the law in both worlds. You'd be shamed, you'd break Mom's heart, you'd have to bear Max's look of shock, Harper's look of horror, you'd be out of the wizard competition forever, you would be thrown in prison or out on the street without magic, and there would another wound gouged into a family that really can't take any more.

You're sure now. Alex took Zeke, or killed him, she did something to him. She's more than capable. This is a girl who effortlessly seduced-is that the right word? You're sure she didn't use anything but your own body, but seduction sounds too slow, too good-her own brother, and smiled when she was done.

It's was Alex's smile. The smile you were horribly acquainted with, the smile that meant she'd won, and she knew it. You don't know what she's won now, and you don't want to.

* * *

><p>No one instantly springs to their feet and declares that they know you fucked Alex. Over the next week you relax, see that you have a good enough poker face that not one of your family members has realized who you did.<p>

Harper is inconsolable. She sits with the flesh sagging off her bones and a dead look to her face, not trying to create anymore, just existing. Max moves like a ghost. Dad drinks heavily. Mom frets and whimpers and drifts around, trying to do anything for her family.

She's trying to keep them together. Mom is the only one trying to do _anything_ now, you've given up. You no longer go into Alex's room. You stop trying to decipher the writing on the Forbidden book and just get another, and sink into studying.

It's harder than it used to be. It takes effort to do magic, more effort than it has since you were a young student. You tire faster. Your only solution is to look up ways to bump up power levels.

Nothing comes up. All that the books say is _practice, practice, read, learn, listen to your superiors, practice, ask the teacher_. In a moment of frustration you think that the Dark Arcana would be more helpful than this.

You shrink from the thought. You heard one man say that that book of spell work blackened the fingers of anyone who touched it. It's locked in the depths of the Wiztech library for a reason, and guarded 24/7 by enchantments, and bound in chains.

The darkest book you'll go to is _"The Elemental Rites"_, which you've read before. It's helpful prep for the wizard competition, the one where Alex thought up a spell you'd never heard of and won with sheer ingenuity against all your training.

You flip through it. It has one chapter about power levels, and it does mention, in passing, that wizard blood is nearly an element in itself, and such a powerful fluid is a neat channel to power.

So you could stab Max? How incredibly helpful. It doesn't even say what to do with blood once you've got it. You toss it aside in disgust and levitate the couch. You're the only one in the lair, so you can grunt as you strain yourself without anyone seeing.

You leave to take your shift at the sub station. Mom is taking down a customer's order with a shaking hand. You hurry up to her and take the pad, seeing that the writing is nearly illegible.

"You go get some rest mom." You murmur. She nods wearily and turns away, probably to find Max. "I'm sorry." You say to the customer. "She's had a rough time lately."

"I'm not surprised." The customer is a middle aged man, whose order was a gut stopping cheesy sub that Max created in a burst of inspiration. Back when Max did things like that. "Did she know one of them?"

"One of who?" The man blinks at you like you've lost all touch with reality.

"The murder victims!" Your guts turn to ice. "Haven't you seen the papers?"

"No." You whisper, your mouth dry. You clear your throat and speak up. "No, I haven't had time."

"Ten people murdered!" The man pushes a copy of the Times over the table at you. "I tell you, the cops are in shabby form if they can't find a serial killer after ten murders! And all in a couple months!"

You sit down hard and flip through the paper. The peoples faces are splashed over the front page. The man doesn't mind having an eager audience to talk to, even if it is just a waiter.

"How were they killed?" You ask. You're scanning the pictures. A few look a tiny bit familiar. One of them, a dark haired beauty, you think you must have passed in the street, checked out somewhere…

"Do you have a strong stomach?" He leans across the table before you answer. "Gruesomely. Someone ripped their hearts from their bodies, ripped them open and slashed up and down their sides with a knife, like they were meat."

You scan. One victim was in a restaurant bathroom. Several where in their homes. The article mentioned how many were behind locked doors, how one was in the shower, how no prints were found, nor any evidence whatsoever.

"No connections at all." The man says wisely. "That's what got them baffled. One was a cook, one worked in a shop, one was just a student. Not a one knew each other."

"Oh." You can't say why this is working you up so much. They're just mortals. No one from the wizarding world would bother going after mortals, so it's no one you can't put in chains with a flick of your wand. But you know what it's like to have someone you knew killed, and maybe that's it. Or maybe it's the sense that you recognize some of these people. "Can I keep this paper?"

"Can I have a coupon?" You give it to him automatically. He chuckles. "Now get me that sandwich, unless I've turned your stomach."

"No sir. Nothing stops us from delivering." You say. You carry the paper with you, stash it in the kitchen as you give Dad the order, and think about it for the rest of the day. Later, reading it at the table, you still can't place the people.

But you start to follow the cases, if only out of morbid fascination. Harper grows paler. Mom grows twitchier. You get her to stop working in the sub station at all, and you have so few customers you don't need her at all. You could probably man both counter and kitchen yourself, there are so few customers.

You're sitting at the counter reading about a new case. This one was an elderly man, a good man, a man with no enemies in the world. This whole spate of murders, because now it's practically one a week, has New York on edge.

They're just so _unrelated_. The few customers who come in and are willing to talk about it say that the general fear is that they'll be next. The old man was in his office, in a building full of people, and when his secretary looked in during her break because no one had seen him all day, she discovered him in an office spattered with blood.

"Wow." Dad says. He puts the salad he just made on the counter for you to take it to the woman who ordered it. "Jim Matthews was killed?"

"You knew him?"

"Yeah, he used to come into the shop." A horrible, dark, impossible, suspicion takes root in your mind. You swallow and when you bring her the food, the woman asks if you're okay. She eyes the salad as if hesitant to eat it now, because you might be contagious.

Mom asks the same thing when you go upstairs. You glance in a mirror and realize that you look even worse than Harper, who now is a shadow of her former self. You're sweating, your eyes are huge, and you've gone pale.

The suspicion sits in you for another week. Then there's another murder, and this one is a cop. Him you recognize. You read the paper sitting at the table, and you let out a low groan when you see his picture. It brings Mom at a run and Max at a walk, and they're joined by Harper and Dad.

"What?" Max asks. He cocks his head and looks at the photo. "It's just another murder."

"That's not possible." Mom whispers. "Justin, _no._"

Mom has an excellent memory for faces. She sees that this is the cop who was at the scene when Mason died, when Mason went down in a flash of blood and pain. You flip to the back page of the paper, where they've started keeping a running tally of small photos and facts about the victims on the off chance _someone_ will have a clue.

"What about these ones?" Mom's hands clap over her mouth, and awful realization dawns. She turns away, shaking her head and shuddering, mouthing "no, no, no" over and over. Dad frowns at the columns of photos. There are fifteen now.

"Well that's Anita, she came in here a lot, and there's Mr. Barry, he was a bastard but we got a load of business of him, and there's Ms. Brun…" Dad freezes. He's only identified a few, and you think that they were the few who were regulars, that you wouldn't notice because you never cared about the sub station but that Mom and Dad might say hello to on the street.

"Yeah." You say quietly. Harper and Max exchange mystified looks.

"Coincidence." Mom snaps. She plants her feet and folds her arms, though her eyes betray that she knows she's lying. "Just coincidence."

"Seriously? Every last one of them was there, weren't they?"

"Where? What are you guys _talking_ about?" Max interjects. He squints at the paper. Max doesn't have a memory for things he actually cares about, let alone random persons, he's failed to make the connection.

"They were all there when Mason died." You tell him. Harper lets out a little scream, her hands flying to her mouth much the way Mom's did. They've been spending a bit too much time around each other. Max staggers and has to brace himself against a chair just to stay upright.

"My daughter is not a murder." Mom declares. "Alex wouldn't…"

"But it makes sense. Magic would get around any lock, and Alex isn't sane anymore, she's not normal, not that she ever was, but she's gone…" You aren't supposed to have seen her in months, but you're now regarded as the fount of information, so no one asks why you know that.

"She could." Harper says suddenly. Harper isn't composed, but her bloodshot eyes focus on you, and she speaks without her voice shaking. "Alex is capable of anything when she's riled, and after Mason…"

This is Alex's best friend speaking. Harper has been right there with Alex on many of her schemes, even more of them than you've been privy to, she _gets_ that Alex is no angel but ruthless and on a level above devious.

"But…" Dad trails off. He looks aching and tired and scared. "We didn't raise a murderer."

_Oh, yes you did. _You want to tell him.

* * *

><p>There's an obvious question hanging around you all the next few days. Alex is punishing the people who were there when Mason died, the innocent bystanders, the people who didn't help.<p>

You're the one with most cause to be murdered. You were _right next to them._ You've actually got magic, you're the one who's job it was to protect Alex, you're the one who didn't even try to get Hengist when he stood there watching.

The family flocks together. Dad just closes the shop. His response, when Mom mutters a protest about needing income, is that they can use Alex's college fund. You want to tell them that they can use your savings too, you don't need them anymore, but that would only make Mom cry.

Now no one goes about alone. Dad sits on the couch drinking, Max sits next to him, and when did your little brother start sipping beer? Harper sits on another chair, paying no attention to any of you, just knitting frantically. Mom watches from the kitchen, where she burns food and bursts into random fits of tears. You take the remaining chair and try to write out a will.

It's on one evening like that, after Alex kills again-this time it's the teenage daughter of another patron, who probably just stopped by with her mother for a milkshake and ran outside when she heard the screams-that Harper flings down the needles.

"Aren't we going to do anything?" She demands. Max and Dad look up from the bottles and are silent. You take it that it's your job to explain.

"Do what?"

"Tell the police!" She responds angrily. "I don't Alex in prison any more than you guys but she's _sick_ or something and she's going to keep going!"

"Not for much longer." Dad tips up a bottle for the last few drops. "There weren't more than twenty people there, and that's sixteen down." Plus you. But she's _had_ a chance to kill you, when you were naked and helpless, and instead she let you thrust and cry out and you were in no state of mind of to defend yourself. Hell, she could've killed you since then. Clearly, she can get into this house without anyone knowing.

Heh. Alex knows where the spare key is stored, of course she can get in.

"But their families! We can't do nothing!" Harper takes up her needles again, and they flash as she purls with fervid energy. You sigh and rest a palm against your forehead.

"Harper, what are we going to tell them? If we tell them that they all went to our diner, one day, months ago, it's going to be us that the suspicion falls on."

"But Alex is the one who disappeared! We all have alibis!" But you can see the conclusion going behind Harper's face. She's slowly working towards what Alex probably figured out when she began.

"All our alibis will be based on family and friends." You say gently. "And them under suspicion as well. Alex is gone, so she can't be brought in for questioning, and we know perfectly well they can't find her. Neither can we." Harper bites her lip, trying to find something.

"We could let them know the next people she'll try for." It rankles with her morals to do nothing when she knows the perpetrator. It rankles with yours too, but not as much as it should, because you get Alex's strategy.

"So that their police guards can be killed too?" Alex would absolutely wade through blood to get what she wants. Or smile and look pretty and innocent, and stab when the policeman turns his back. "And do we know who the other patrons were? It was months ago, and it's not as though every one who comes in here is required to sign a ledger. No one who isn't a regular even gives their name."

Harper's needles flash. "So we can't do anything, despite knowing the murderer."

"It's magic. They're mortals." Before you can ask, you tell her flatly "If we sic the wizard cops on her, we still can't guarantee that they'll catch her. Alex is untraceable, we've established that. We also can't tell them who's going to get hit next, or guarantee they'll care."

"Oh." Harper looks very small. You close your eyes.

"I wish we could do something. But Alex is going to wade through blood to get her vengeance whatever we do." Dad chokes on his newest beer. Max thumps him on the back. "What?"

"She's not only gunning for mortals. She was furious that the higher wizards didn't stop Hengist first." Your first impulse is to point out that Alex couldn't possibly take out people like Professor Crumbs and his colleagues, they're wizards who can call up hurricanes and melt brains with their minds.

Then you reconsider. This is a very scary version of Alex, and even though she couldn't do it as easily as she cuts through mortals, and even though the very thought of assassinating eons old wizards is inconceivable, she could try.

"We should warn them. If they're on their guard…" Dad nods and gets to his feet, not quite steadily. Max, who apparently can hold his liquor, follows him. Mom hurries after you. Harper gulps.

You hate to admit it, but Harper won't be welcome in the high offices where you're going. She knows it.

"I'll go to bed." It's safe. Harper didn't come home until long after Mason died. Alex has no quarrel with her.

_She didn't have any reason to go after Zeke, either._ Your treacherous mind hisses at you. You dismiss it and lead the way to the lair, to enter the wizarding world and tell some of the most powerful men alive that a teenager is out to kill them.

* * *

><p>Just as you arrive in the lab, there are wizards walking through the door. They flash badges-they're wizard detectives. You feel a swell of panic-Alex is caught, she's lied and said you were all involved in the plot just to spite her family-but no.<p>

"Hugh Normous has been murdered." The ground sways around you. Max drops into a chair. Dad actually sways, and you need to grab his arm to keep him from falling over. Mom goes stark white.

"And why did you come to us?" You ask, in a tone far too reasonable. It doesn't show the panic bubbling up around your plane of logic, the ordered ground that has become dangerously tinted since that night with Alex.

"Other than the fact that you clearly know something about it?" The first asks in an ironic tone. True, your family's reactions was extreme.

"Hugh was a friend of ours." You say, voice tight. "But we didn't have any premonitions."

"What do you know about the whereabouts of Alex Russo?" Mom lets out a little moan. The silent detective writes it down. You put a hand to her shoulder, in case she faints.

"We don't where she is." Max says quietly. It's not right, for Max to be so subdued. Maybe he's a sad drunk. "But we came to warn you that we think she's going to kill the wizards fighting the Entropy Order."

No reaction. The detectives look nonplussed by the mention of what may very well be the machine behind half of human history.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Alex disappeared over four months ago, and we haven't heard from her since." You tell them. "She killed Hugh? Why would she do that?" The detectives glance at each other. You sigh. "We don't know anything but that we think she's in New York."

"Hugh Normous was killed by a knife to the chest at exactly 10:34 pm, yesterday." One divulges. You try to think if anything at all unusual happened yesterday. The girl was killed, so Alex was doing two murders in a day? No one can accuse Alex of hesitating. "He was guarding the Beoborian Vessel."

"Alex stole the _Beoborian Vessel?"_ You ask incredulously. Dad takes one step and crumples into a seat. Max and Mom both look bewildered, and you spare a second to despair over Max's schoolwork. "It's a vial of condensed moonlight. No one knows what it actually does, except Beobor, who was the wizard that managed to make moonlight into a liquid, but everyone knows it's powerful and the only one of it's kind in the world. Hugh was guarding it?"

"He's a trainee, and we didn't expect actual trouble." There still shock in the detective's eyes. The Beoborian Vessel being stolen is inconceivable. No one has ever even tried, the guards are ceremonial. "Besides, it was in the center of an enchantment."

"So she didn't use magic." Dad says, in the same quiet tone Max used. "She killed him with her own hands."

"She must have been waiting for a chance." You mutter. You know Alex, you're working this out pretty easily. "Hugh would never think Alex would be going to attack him, he'd probably walk up to her to hug her, and she knew that so she went for him instead of a guard who wouldn't trust her."

"You're remarkably sure of her." The detective says cuttingly. You want to laugh at the thought of you and Alex plotting to murder Hugh and steal an essentially useless bottle of moonlight.

"I'm her brother." That should explain it, and it does. "Can I ask how you know it was her? I can't see why she would steal it…"

"Neither do we." The detective sighs. "We got the attack on security footage. A dark haired girl in a cloak with the hood down approached Hugh, and he went to embrace her. She stabbed him under the left armpit, killing him instantly, and then turned to where our spell was set up. She waved, took the Vessel, and…" The detective coughed. "She blew a kiss at the spell as she left. From there, every other security spell in the castle set to record goes black for five minutes, and she's gone. We have no idea where she went."

"That sounds like Alex." You can see her flaunting her theft in the faces of the high wizards. Maybe she just took it to insult them, or because she saw that she could.

How _did_ she know that she could? Alex was supposed to be in New York, murdering, maybe not at that exact time, but that same day, and it wasn't like the wizarding world sent around an email when they changed guards. For that matter, how did she figure out which people were in the sub station when Mason died? Alex hadn't really been paying attention to the crowd that day.

Irrelevant. Alex has some way of getting information, and it's better not to contemplate it.

"We don't know anything, I'm sorry." Your voice sounds hollow. But it's nothing but the truth. The detective nods.

"We'll be back in the morning, after we check out our other suspects." They're probably off to interrogate everyone who knew Alex. They won't get much. You already tried finding Alex that way, and met total confusion.

The detectives leave, and the Russos look at each other. Mom is silently weeping. Dad gets up and steers her away, up to their bedroom, to tuck her in and give her some sleeping pills. Max flicks his wand and mutters a spell, and a bottle of whiskey appears in his hand.

You glare. He looks back sullenly, but hands over the bottle. The last thing you need is Max the Alcoholic. You might already have Dad the Alcoholic. You eye the bottle, but dismiss it with a wave of your wand. Whatever comfort Dad and Max get from this stuff, it isn't going to get a foothold with you.

* * *

><p>You dream that night. It's no surprise that it's a nightmare, but it's a vivid one, and not at all one of the familiar ones you've had ever since Alex disappeared.<p>

_Harper walks with Alex. She looks amazed, dazed, euphoric. They're in New York, central park probably. Alex is different. She walks like a predator, but Harper has never seen predators, so how would she know? _

_It's more than that. Alex's hair is tied back, but you see the streaks of white in it that mark a dark wizard. She wears a purple gem at her throat, a massive one that seems somehow familiar. Her clothing is dark, leather pants and a hoodie that looks stolen. It's looseness could conceal a silver knife quite well. _

"_But, we thought you were…" Harper trails off. Alex smiles at her._

"_You didn't seriously believe that! I was set up!" Harper relaxes. Alex sounds just as she always has. "You wouldn't have gone to the police?"_

"_I was scared." Harper admits. She toes the ground as they walk on it. _

"_I still came to you." Alex says softly. She stops and turns so she's in front of Harper. "You were my best friend." _

"_Yeah." Harper's eyes dart. You want to yell at her to get away, but the scene is far from you. You may be able to small the night scent and see both of them with perfect clarity, but interfere? No, you cannot. "Alex are you okay?"_

"_I'm more than okay. I'm going to be great, very soon." Alex steps closer to Harper and grabs both her wrists. "And I knew you would walk with me. You don't trust me, but you always go along with me." _

"_Um?" Harper swallows. The air has thickened. "I couldn't help it." _

"_I suppose not. But you were my best friend, and so you're going to go better than they did." Harper's eyes widen with fear. Alex slides forward and kisses her. Harper's eyes grow dazed then lustful, and you think that a kiss from Alex is like a snakebite. The girl must know what she's doing, have some kind of control over emotions, and you grasp on that excuse, but Alex never bothered kissing _you.

_Harper begins to writhe. Alex keeps kissing, but her eyes are wide and somehow looking right at you, taunting. To your shock and shame, you're jealous of Harper even as she slowly goes limp, eyes fluttering closed. _

_Alex steps forward, the silver knife emerging from her sweatshirt, and makes two swift cuts. One to Harper's throat, the other to her gut. You want to vomit as blood and guts spill out, but in dreaming you can't, not even when Alex leans down to and cups Harper's blood in her hands, and grasps her entrails in the other. _

Then you wake up. You vomit instantly, all over yourself, and don't even clean it up. Instead you run for Harper's room, and it's empty. Lights flicker on-Max bolts from his room smelling like whiskey, Dad and Mom stumble from their bedroom in pajamas, fear pushing sleep from their eyes, and you point wordlessly at the empty bed.

The next day you recite how you realized no one had seen Harper and you were worried, to the wizard detectives. They nod. Harper's body is found on a path in the park, all the intestines gone and her throat sliced.

That day you and your family are brought under wizard protection. The sub station is going to close. You have to leave home, and it doesn't even matter to you. Dad grieves the passing of his restaurant, the one he always took such pride in, but compared to the death of one almost-daughter and the insanity of his biological daughter, it's nothing. Mom packs her things. Max takes nothing but his wand. You follow his example. Or maybe he follows yours. You can't tell.

The remaining Russos enter the door to the Wizarding World in the company of stone faced dark wizard catchers who go under the codename "wardens" and you think that this is only the beginning.

**A/N: I like writing this. And it's only going to get worse. You think that Alex is going crey-crey now…oh, she's got much higher aims in mind. And let me just say that I had to rewrite the first 7 pages of this because my laptop decided to be evil and have an "unexpected shutdown". I had to make Zeke die twice. I **_**like**_** Zeke.**

**Please review?**


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